The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-08-19
TIE BOOMING WEST.
OMAHA'S BOOM AND ITS REAL
ESTATE SPECULATION.
It's Wonderful Growth Within the Past
Few Years-something About Its Build
ings-A Chat with Senator Manderson
as to Nebraska.
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
OMAHA, Aug. S.
Omaha is another baby giant among the
new cities of the west. Laid out in 1858, and
named after an Indian tribe, it contained, ~
1866, 200 people. Ten years later It hadin-
creased to 10000, and in 1880 its population
was 10000 By 1885 it had again doubled,
and it now contains about 10000 souls. Its
business has grown with its numbers, and its
bank clearings last year made it the four
teenth business city of the United States, and
showed an increase Of SO per cent. over the
clearings of 1885, Its builders rival those
employed by Aladdin, and it has an army Of
graders continually at work cutting down its
hills and filling up its valleys. These graders
live in tents outside of the city, and you can
see camps of them along nearly every line OF
railroad coming into the place. They have
already graded fifty-six miles of street, and
within three years Omaha has paid out more
than 81, 600, 900 for public improvements. 1t
has now twenty-five miles of street railway
in operation, and the rails are laid for two
lines of cable road The town did about twice
as much building in 1886 as in 1885, and be-
tween January and May of this year it began
buildings which will aggregate cost Of
$2,500,000. Building is going on all over the
city, and the real estate boom has been inn
mense.
The whole of the surrounding country has
been laid out in lots Property has been sold
in every conceivable way, and even the tele
graph operators and the typewriter girls
have engaged in the speculation. Many of
these have made money, and was told of one
woman from Cedar Rapids, Ia, who, having
saved $500, had left school teaching and gone
to Kansas City to engage in speculation. She
made some little money there and then came
to Omaha. She is now worth $15, ,000 and
says she is going to increase this to $25 600
and then quit. She is p.ucky speculator,
and though her deals are small, she continues
to make. During the real estate craze every
one talked real estate in Omaha. You would
hear it in the dry goods stores among the
clerks, and am told that this was the staple
conversation even at the tables of the twenty
five cent hash houses. One man in Council
Bluffs went crazy over the rise ON real estate.
He had 100 lots which he sold at an advance
of S25 per lot. The good fortune was more
than he could stand, and he is now i'll the
asylum. #Hs
The rise in real estate, however, has been
inside as well as outside of the city. Business
property has jumped upwards, and prices of
this class of property, considering the amount
of business building going on, are still not too
high. A lot on the corner of Fifteenth and
Douglas streets, a feet wide and 1872 feet
deep, sold short time ago for $S7 800, or
almost 50, 900 foot, and a lot on the corner
of Sixteenth and Farnham streets, one of the
best corners in the city, sold for S57, 900. This
lot was 30x130 feet in size, and it was bought
fifteen years ago for 81 500. A thousand dol
lars foot is a common price in the best
parts of the city, and there is good deal of
property worth 81, 500 and more foot front.
The buildings being put up show that business
men have confidence in the continued growth
OF Omaha and the town is now building on
city basis. There are now from fifteen 10
twenty business houses in course of erection
which will cost from $3.50, 900 to $500, 900 each.
&**
Senator Paddock, the man who is to take
Van Wycks place at Washington, owns
fine seven story building here which will rent
for from s., 600 to $1,000 year, and Senator
Manderson owns nice property in the fash
ionable part of the city upon which he pro-
noses to soon erect residence. Senator
Manderson is one of the brightest of the
young public men of the west. Coming from
Ohio originally, he has made both reputation
and money in Nebraska, and he has unlimited
confidence in the future of Omaha. In q
chat with him upon the subject asked him
whether he thought its prosperity would last.
He replied II am sure of it. Omaha will
be one of the greatest cities of the west. Its
growth has been well founded, and look at
It's history shows this to be So
".The first settlement at Omaha was made in
1858. For several years it seemed to be of
but little account. In fact, the town appeared
20 be important only because it was across
he river from Council Bluffs. It was not
then supposed that the country between the
Missouri river and the Rocky mountains was
worth anything for agricultural purposes.
Most of it was known as the Great American
Desert. The commercial crisis of 1857 almost
extinguished the little settlement of Omaha,
BUT it seems to have had wonderful power of
recoil from disaster and the census of 1850
shows that it had nearly 1900 population.
The building of the Union Pacific railway
within the decade following 1860 gave the
city material increase, so that in 1870 it had
10000 population. During the next ten years
it became railway center, having five great
lines of railway connecting it directly with
the east, and four great lines reaching out
into the west The state, which had a popu-
laton Of less than 80, 600 in 1860, and in 1870 of
less than 125, 600, has increased so that in 1880
it numbered nearly half a million. and
Omaha, keeping pace with the growth of the
state. had nearly $1,000 population in 1880.
The state census Of 1885, which was very
carefully taken, gives the state OF Nebraska
about $50, 900, and Omaha about 65, 600.
aDuring the last two years it is estimated
that between twelve and fifteen thousand
people have permanently settled in Omaha
each year, so that its present population is
between 10000 and 100, 600, and the state has
unquestionably at this time population of
one million"
aNbat is the reason for this great in
creased"
aThis phenomenal growth" replied Senator
Manderson, amay be mainly attributed to
the fact that the 76, 600 square miles of area in
Nebraska contained the largest prOportlonate